The GIFLIB project maintains the giflib service library, which has been pulling images out of GIFs since 1989. It is deployed everywhere you can think of and some places you probably can't - graphics applications and web browsers on multiple operating systems, game consoles, smartphones, and probably your ATM too.

This is very mature and stable code that needs only occasional minor bugfixes. Test reports from odd platforms and better regression tests are particularly welcome. Don't try to redesign it, applications beyond counting would break if you did.

It's "GIFLIB" in caps as a nod to the code's origins in the dark and backward abysm of MS-DOS, but Unix hackers are encouraged to spell it "giflib" in deference to local conventions. :-)

You can read GIFLIB's documentation here. People to thank for this code: Gershon Elber, Eric S. Raymond, Toshio Kuratomi.

The SourceForge summary page (where you can download the source, review the project, find links to the bugtracker and mailing list pages, or ask to join the project as a developer) is here.

There is a Freecode GIFLIB page.